Dress
Rehearsal for Master and Margarita Continues.
“Fill
my cup, boy,
With the tipsy bitterness of
the Falernian!..”
A. S. Pushkin. After a Poem by Catullus.
I
was sometimes wondering why Bulgakov got seemingly confused, calling Woland’s
gift to master and Margarita a “bottle of wine,” whereas what he brought them
wasn’t really a bottle, but a “jug.”
In
the Theatrical Novel, Bulgakov does
not focus attention on where exactly the wine, to which S. L. Maksudov was
treating his guest Bombardov, was coming from. But, considering that the idea
of the jug comes to Bulgakov from S. Yesenin’s poetry, it may be worthwhile to
investigate this matter.
The
theme of the jug materializes in Bulgakov in the last two chapters of Pontius Pilate. In chapter 25, How the Procurator Tried to Save Judas from
Kyriath, already on the second page, where we meet the procurator yet
again. --
“[He] was lying on a coach in front of a low small table set with
delicacies and wine in jugs… At the Procurator’s feet, there stretched a still
unremoved red pool as though of blood, and fragments of a shattered jug
were scattered there.”
As
we know, the head of secret police Aphranius receives a secret personal order
from the procurator to kill, or rather to slaughter, Judas of Kyriath, and as
for the money that Judas had received for setting up Yeshua, to return it to
the High Priest Caiaphas with the following note: “I am returning the cursed money.”
I
was always interested in the following passage in the 26th chapter
of Master and Margarita, The Burial, in which Aphranius, using
the services of a married Greek woman Niza, who works for him, lures Judas
outside the city limits of Yerushalaim. ---
“The young man [Judas] not only noticed this woman [Niza], no, he
recognized her, and, having recognized her, he quivered, stopped in
bewilderment, staring at her back, and immediately went off to chase her.
Having nearly knocked some passerby with a jug in his hands off his
feet, the young man caught up with the woman, and, breathing heavily from
excitement, called her name: Niza!”
The
elusive contraposition notwithstanding of “fragments of a broken jug,” in
Pilate’s case, and “some passerby with a jug in his hands” here, we are dealing
with parallel situations, so greatly enjoyed by Bulgakov and so skillfully
introduced by him in his works.
In
Pontius Pilate, these “fragments of a
broken jug” symbolize the body of the slaughtered Judas, and the “unremoved red
pool as though of blood” symbolizes Judas’s profusely spilled blood.
What
then is symbolized by the jug in the hands of some passerby, if not Woland,
using his own words: “Oh, no, this can be
confirmed by kto [someone].” We know that Woland is a witness of all
historical events that are of interest to him. And, considering that the
manifestation of God on earth was of tremendous interest to the devil, Bulgakov
shows, in the chapter which he titles The
Burial, an act of revenge only the devil could be capable of.
It
is impossible here not to remember how in Master
and Margarita Woland is mocking those people who believe that their fate is
in their hands:
“Pardon me, in order to
control, one must have some kind of precise plan for a certain decent time
period. But… how can a man be in control, when not only is he utterly deprived
of the possibility to make up any kind of plan, even for a ridiculously short
period of time, for, say, a thousand years, but he cannot even be sure about
his own tomorrow?”
It
is impossible not to agree with Woland’s logic. No person can really know what
will happen to him or her when tomorrow comes.
It
is not by accident that Bulgakov introduces the conversation about “some kind
of plan” as early as in the first chapter of his novel, titled Never Talk to Strangers.
There
are twenty-five chapters in Master and
Margarita between “some kind of plan” and “some passerby.”
And
here it is. The current plan of Woland himself is stretched over two thousand
years:
It
is the jug of Falerni wine, made famous by Catullus, and further immortalized
by Pushkin. Here is our English translation from the Russian rendition of
Catullus by A. S. Pushkin:
“Fill
my cup, boy,
With
the tipsy bitterness of the Falernian!
Thus
Postumia has ordered,
Who
presides over the orgies.
As
for you, waters, you flow away,
And
give your streams, enemies of wine,
To
the strict fasters, as their drink.
As
for us, pure Bacchus is dear to us.”
The
Falernian was the favorite wine of the Romans. It was Aphranius’ favorite as
well. He was instantly aware that the wine offered to him by the procurator was
not the Falernian.
But
it was the Falernian wine that Azazello brought to master and Margarita in
their basement. ---
“And here again I forgot! – wheezed
Azazello, slapping his forehead. Too many
things to do! The point is that Messire has sent you a gift,,, a bottle of
wine. Please note that this is the same wine which the procurator of Judea
used to drink: the Falernian wine… Out of a piece of dark coffin brocade,
Azazello produced an utterly moldy jug...”
Woland’s
plan of two thousand years was to reward the man who would write the most
interesting novel about Christ’s last day on earth.
The
idea of inserting real historical events into a work of literary fiction, for
which A. S. Pushkin so much praised Walter Scott, was brilliantly implemented
by Bulgakov, inserting the sub-novel of Pontius
Pilate into his novel Master and
Margarita.
There
is a very interesting twist with regard to wine, as it is being brought to
master and Margarita by Azazello, whose prototype is Sergei Yesenin. According
to Maxim Gorky’s reminiscences, Yesenin, not being averse to hard liquor, detested
wine. And he only drank it because of his idol A. S. Pushkin, who loved wine
and sang profuse praises to it.
But
it wasn’t just wine and it wasn’t so much wine that was connected in Bulgakov
with Yesenin. It was most interestingly the idea of the jug. In his play in
verse Pugachev, Yesenin writes:
“Pugachev:
Do
you know that there is a rumor among the rabble…
That
some kind of cruel guide
Brings
the dead shadow of the Emperor
To
the Russian expanse.
This
shadow with a rope on its meatless neck,
Tugging
at its dropped down jaw,
Dancing
with its creaking feet,
Comes
to avenge himself,
Comes
to avenge upon Catherine,
Raising
its arm like a yellow stake,
For
the reason that she and her accomplices…”
(Those
accomplices, as we remember, included Count Panin. And now, here it comes! –)
“…Having
broken the white jug of his head,
Ascended
the throne.”
Using
this widespread popular legend, Pugachev passes himself off as the allegedly
surviving Emperor Peter III himself.
The
fact that Bulgakov took the idea of the jug from Yesenin is confirmed by the
following lines from Yesenin’s Pugachev:
“It
is hard for the heart to throw light on gnarled cups
From
the chandelier of revenge. [sic!]”
And
how is it in Bulgakov? Listening to Yeshua’s tale of how Judas had invited him
to his house, Pontius Pilate, “mimicking the arrestee, spoke through his teeth:
He lit the chandeliers? --- Yes, somewhat
surprised at how much the procurator knew, continued Yeshua.”
Even
Yesenin’s Pugachev understands that revenge is the prerogative of God. Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.
Human
revenge is from the devil. Where there is revenge, the devil is there.
To
be continued…
No comments:
Post a Comment